


Cecilia Crescent and the Saving of Colin Creevey

by LevyDelta



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Canon Divergence, Friendship, Good Slytherins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 05:41:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4865174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LevyDelta/pseuds/LevyDelta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you truly love someone, their life can more valuable than their love.<br/>A Slytherin OC friend of Colin's makes a difficult choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cecilia Crescent and the Saving of Colin Creevey

**Author's Note:**

> #idonotownharrypotter

There would have been silence in the Great Hall. Would have been. Nearly all of the Slytherins and the underclassmen of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had already left. The Gryffindors had proved a bit more stubborn, but that was to be expected. There was only one left. Colin Creevey had returned to Hogwarts and was currently being dragged out of the Hall by Professor McGonagall, but it was clear to anyone who could see his face that he wasn’t ready to give up yet.

That was when the last of the Slytherins headed to the back of the Hall. Harry could only remember her from the time she had come up to him during his fifth year to tell him that she believed him and wished she’d been invited to be a part of the DA. He was glad she was leaving, even though part of him wanted her to stay, to prove that not all Slytherins were on the side of the Death Eaters.

But when she reached the middle of the end of the Hall, she didn’t turn out the door as everyone had clearly expected. She continued to the Gryffindor table and proceeded to turn and walk up until she reached Colin and held up her hand with a look full of promise to McGonagall.

“Colin.” She addressed him derisively but still used his first name.

“ _What, Cecilia?_ ” he demanded, wrenching his arm from McGonagall’s grasp.

“Go home, Colin.”

“‘Go home’? Is that all you have to say to me?” He sounded furious. “You?! You’re always telling me to try to find the right choice for myself! Now you’re just telling me to go home? No! I know what the right choice is! I’m going to fight whether you like it or not!”

“The right choice here is the utilitarian choice here. Like it or not your own life has value, and I will not have an underage wizard fighting in this war when he should be saving it for when he is actually competent enough to contribute something,” she pronounced. He was taller than she was, but like the Slytherin she was, she still managed to seem to look scornfully down on him.

“I _can_ help!”

“Can you now?” She smirked as though he were a child, probably because he was one.

“Yes! I’ll prove it to you! Just let me fight!”

Her face became cruel. “You really think you can fight? You’ll be facing people like me. You can’t keep up. You could never keep up. You weren’t even born into this world. You’ve been playing catchup since the beginning of your time at this school, and it shows. You’ll never be able to match the fully trained witches and wizards we’re going to be facing. You would need years of training to last even a minute. Now get your pathetic, Gryffindor arrogance out of my line of sight.”

“How dare you!” Colin was practically screaming now. “I thought you were different! You were always saying the Houses should work together, but I guess now the truth comes out. You’re just a prejudiced Slytherin after all.”

“And proud of it,” she sneered.

“I hate you!” he slapped her across the face, but she barely blinked. “I hate all of you Slytherins! How dare you even pretend to be on our side!”

She fisted his shirt in her hand, “So you’d even attack someone who’d side with you before you defeat your common enemy?” she spat. “If Gryffindor had any points left, I’d recommend someone take points for strategy, but you know what? I hate you too. No one wants you here, you filthy little mudblood.”

With an incoherent cry of rage, Colin forcefully shoved her a large step backward and sprinted toward the back of the hall sobbing. Cecilia turned scornfully away to face McGonagall without opening her eyes, as though it were beneath her, but as Colin’s footsteps pounded through the deafening silence, her facade cracked. From the back, which she kept facing Colin, she looked exactly the same, her chin held up as though in haughty indifference or scorn, but from the front, her face was creased with pain, and her hands, hidden within her cloak trembled in fists.

The door slammed behind him, and McGonagall stepped forward to put a hand on her shoulder, and that was enough. She broke. Now it was the sound of her own choked sobs that echoed from the walls as McGonagall squeezed gently, and Harry felt as though he were watching the first death of the battle. A death, not of a person, but of a friendship, like the rift he had torn between himself and Lupin, the sort of rift that is only worth making to save a person’s life because it can never be fully repaired.

“It was all I could do!” she gasped between hitching breaths. “He would have found a way back no matter what it took. The only way I could distract him from the battle and the cause for long enough to get him away was to make him feel angry and betrayed.” Harry knew her explanation was as much for herself as for her silent audience. “I’m sorry, Colin! I’m so, so sorry!”

She wiped her sleeves against her face deliberately and drew shuddering breaths to get herself back under control. Finally, she raised her head. Closing her eyes so that she could address the whole Hall, she said, “If I die tonight, tell him I lied, and I’m sorry."

She strode back to the Slytherin table, and though her eyes were rimmed with red, at the moment, she was probably the most dignified person in the castle. Harry found he was glad because when she drew her wand and faced the front of the room, the four Houses were united at last. No one had any doubt where the Slytherin’s loyalties lay.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because in my opinion, the purest and most beautiful form of love requires nothing in return.


End file.
